Edinburgh's best street food

7 Mins

Long gone are the days of kebabs and fish and chips as the only options for street food. Middle Eastern cuisine, Brazilian flavours and bespoke barbecue bites are taking over the city. Here are five of the best spots in town to tuck into the biggest foodie fad of the year…

Jones & Son

Gourmet street food as it should be comes in a tasty bun stuffed full of delicious pulled pork, slowly cooked for hours in a bespoke oil drum barbecue, served with coleslaw in a tangy chilli jam, courtesy of Jones & Son. The father and son team design and make unique, bespoke handcrafted charcoal barbecues and cook on them once a week at St Mary’s Market.

Good for: Smoked meat.Must try: Their signature dish, pulled pork on a bun with slaw.Expect to pay: £4 for a pulled pork roll.Anything else you should know? You can hire the Jones & Son team for your very own bespoke barbecue at home.

Tuk Tuk

Offering authentic Indian street food that’s ‘a mix of rustic roadside and railway station dishes’, Tuk Tuk has a compact menu of 25 dishes. It’s recommended to try three to four to get a real sense of the flavours on offer in this Leven Street restaurant, making it the perfect spot to try something new and enjoy old favourites.

Good for: Sharing dinner with friends.Must try: The Bun Kebabs, two mini spiced lamb Punjabi ‘tiki wala’ burgers served with fries and salad, £5.Expect to pay: £3.80 - £5.20 per dish.Anything else you should know? Tuk Tuk is the name for a three wheeled motorised rickshaw which is a popular method of travel in India. The restaurant has its own tuk tuks that tour the city in summer months to offer great food on the go.

Tupiniquim

This humble police box on Middle Meadow Walk really is ‘Brazil in a Box’, with fresh bananas, mangos and melons all dangling at the sides of the serving hatch for the freshest of fruit smoothies. Named afterBrazil’s indigenous people, this box provides friendly service and great food and there’s also an array of gluten-free sweet and savoury crepe options and guest dishes.

Good for: Flavoursome al fresco bites.Must try: The Margherita crepe – goats cheese, basil, sun dried tomatoes, pecans, spinach and jalepenos.Expect to pay: Around £2.50 for a simple crepe or £4.80 for one packed with meat and veg. Smoothies start at £2.50.Anything else you should know? Head along on Saturday for ‘Feijoada Sat’day’ where you can sample a tasty mix of rice, beans and meat, a staple Brazilian dish.

Kim’s Mini Meals

Walking into Kim’s Mini Meals is like walking into its owners Mr and Mrs Kim’s family home, warmly decorated with mix and matched cushioned chairs. The food is a blend of Korean streetfood dishes and traditional home cooking, including the customary Korean bibimbap, a mixed rice dish. Wash dinner down with a Korean soft drink such as rich punch, crushed pear or aloe vera.

Good for: As one of the few Korean restaurants inScotland, it’s a great opportunity to explore Korean culture through food.Must try: Dolsot Bibimbap, a selection of seven or eight vegetables served with mixed rice, mince and red pepper paste.Expect to pay: Typical lunch dish, £8, typical dinner dish, £12.Anything else you should know? Korean cuisine should be quick to prepare and eat, so you’ll often hear locals say to each other ‘Balley, Balley!’, which means ‘fast, fast!’

Pomegranate

Sister restaurant to the long established Hanam’s, Pomegranate serves Middle Eastern streetfood in the form of hot and cold mezze dishes. Expect delicious ethnic offerings of Tabbouleh, a popular Lebanese salad, Baba Ghanoush, a smoky aubergine dish, and an abundance of hummus (all £4 each). As with many Middle Eastern eateries, Pomegranate is BYOB.

Good for: Authentic Middle Eastern flavours and ingredients.Must try: Samboussek, small triangular pastry parcels filled with either spicy minced lamb and onions or fiery vegetables. For something more gentle, try the rose water sorbet (£3.50), a favourite at any traditional celebration.Expect to pay: £4 for vegetarian mezze and £6 for meat options.Anything else you should know? In keeping with the traditional Middle Eastern vibe of the restaurant a variety of shisha is available to smoke through ornate shisha pipes.